Simmons the Destroyer
by rmlohner
Summary: Simmons thought she'd seen some weird stuff at SHIELD, but the other side of the galaxy is a whole other story. Post S2
1. Chapter 1

Simmons had no concept of how long she spent in the black void after getting sucked into the Kree weapon. There was nothing to see around her, and the constant feeling of spinning out of control obliterated any attempt to keep track of time. She didn't know if she should be thankful that she was still somehow able to breathe inside the tar-like substance, considering she had no indication of whether that simply meant she was doomed to starve to death inside the thing.

But not long after that thought crossed her mind, it was over, and she saw light again. Just one problem: the room she was now in was completely different from where she'd started. It was a barren stone chamber filled with a cold blue light, the only furnishings being ornate pillars in the corners. Looking back, she saw the weapon that had sucked her up, or at least a copy of it. Wanting to get as far as possible, she rushed in the opposite direction, only to bump face first into what seemed in every other respect like thin air.

She didn't have long to ponder this before a hole in the wall opened up opposite her, and a large blue humanoid came in. Her first thought was of the Kree. This was their device, after all, and from everything she'd heard this being looked just like they were supposed to. Then she noticed the look on his face, stunned surprise, before he said, "My god, it really did happen. A destroyer was called. I am honored to be in your presence." He bowed his head.

A rather nonplussed Simmons replied, "Um, excuse me?"

The Kree looked up, confused. "You are a destroyer, are you not? Sent to the Kree to help us cleanse the universe of our past mistakes?"

Simmons shrugged. "I…don't think so. Sorry."

He paced a few steps. "But this is impossible. The retrievers were designed to only open for those who possessed the ability. How did this happen?"

"I was just minding my own business when this thing just grabbed me. I mean, I know about the weapons your people created and that you're trying to get rid of them now, but that's got nothing to do with me."

The pacing stopped and he looked at her again. "Oh, but it does. The retriever would not have sent you to us unless you possessed the gift and had not yet been corrupted by the Terrigen mist. I'm sorry that you didn't know, but it is your fate to be trained by us to wipe out others like yourselves."

Simmons felt like the floor had dropped under her. Could it be true? Was she an Inhuman herself? She couldn't help smirking at the irony if that was the case, given her brief flirtation with Gonzales' level of bigotry towards them.

The Kree misinterpreted the expression. "Ah, you are pleased to hear it. Good. And now I must take you to someone with more authority than I. He will know what to do." He touched a button on his belt, and there was a brief wind as the room's air circulated. He held out his hand, and without much other option Simmons took it, this time passing through to the door without incident.

The Kree didn't seem to have much of a sense of aesthetics, as all the halls they passed through looked the same as the room she'd come through, and Simmons quickly gave up trying to memorize the way back. Finally they arrived in a place with more furnishings, looking like a throne room except with something more like an office desk that another Kree was sitting at.

Her companion gave a brief bow. "General, this is the one the retriever sent to us. Unfortunately, she did not know about her fate beforehand."

The Kree General was older, with a couple nasty looking scars across his face. He frowned at Simmons and said, "Well, it was not our mistake, I know that much. You will never go poor underestimating the incompetence of others. Now, what is your name?"

Simmons took a half second to realize he was talking to her. "Jemma. Jemma Simmons."

The frown didn't budge. "And what do you know of our situation, if you were ignorant of that much?"

Simmons told him the story of Vin-Tak's visit, then skipped ahead to the event that brought her here when she sensed the General getting impatient. He then nodded and said, "You don't strike me as much of a warrior, but the retriever cannot be wrong. You will fight for us. Are you ready to begin?"

She shook her head. "I'm sorry, but you're right. I'm not a warrior, I'm a scientist. And I just want to go home. Can't you send me back there and wait for someone else? What difference could I make?"

The General's eyes grew very cold. "Beings like you are few and getting fewer. We need every able body to purge the universe of our ancestors' mistakes. Yet you say you are not willing?"

Simmons' terror was growing, but still she stood her ground. "I don't believe they need to be purged. I've met a few of them, and some are quite reasonable and just want to live their lives. One is a good friend."

This got the General upset enough to stand up. "Disgraceful. Well, you will accept your fate one way or another. Perhaps some time in confinement will make you more willing. Take her to a cell!"

The first Kree gave another bow and grabbed Simmons' arm, towing her out of the room with a powerful grip. Once they were out in the hall he said, "You should not have said that. There is only one way this can end for you, so why not spare yourself this discomfort?"

Simmons looked him in the eye and said, "Because I have powerful friends, and I have faith in them. They will find me somehow."

"Perhaps, perhaps not. Either way, this is what happens next." He then surprised her by giving a small laugh. "If nothing else, spending some time with your new cellmate may make you more compliant. Listening to his endless babble is almost on par with some of our torture devices."

She was dragged down several levels, and then thrown behind another force field. A voice behind her shouted "Is it asking too much for some decent food?" before the Kree left.

Simmons sighed and turned to see her new companion. And then it took her mind several seconds to accept what she was seeing. She had thought knowing the Kree were in the universe was strange enough, but nothing had prepared her for the sight of a four foot duck wearing a red waistcoat.

He looked her up and down with an uncomfortable lascivious look in his eye. "Well well well, every new alien I see really is uglier than the last." He then noticed her expression and said, "Let me guess. You were expecting a raccoon."


	2. Chapter 2

"So that's when I met the Collector, and man, what an asshole that guy was. He kept me on ice for years, but then he got his whole place blown up, so I guess what goes around, and everything." The duck, who'd given his name as the absurdly normal sounding Howard, hadn't shut up since Simmons had been thrown in with him. He didn't seem to have any interest in what Simmons thought of any of it, and she'd barely been able to get a word in since he started. Simmons had long since passed the point where her amazement at the creature's existence gave way to wishing to never see it again.

That's when the sound reached her of what seemed to be a battle nearby. "Oh thank god," she said as Howard finally stopped talking and joined her at the edge of the force field to listen.

After a while, someone entered the room carrying another over his shoulder. He also had blue skin, but didn't appear to be a Kree, looking more like a cross between them and humans. His face lit up when he looked into the cell, showing a row of disgusting yellow teeth. "Howard, my old friend. Did you really think getting captured by these knuckleheads would get you out of what you owe me?"

Howard backed away, putting his hands before him. "Hey, look, Yondu, I'll get you the money. With interest, even. I was just on my way to pick it up when I ran into these guys. So what do you say, you just let me out of here and I'll do it right now?"

The grin didn't fade, but Yondu's voice became rather more serious. "I've had way too many people try to skip out on getting me what they owe. You think looking as pathetic as you do is going to let you off? Because right now I'm very close to making another bobble-head out of you." Then he noticed Simmons for the first time. "Well, hello, lovely lady. Sorry to see you in the company of this loser, but what do you say to coming with me? I could use some female companionship for a while. Been a while since I've had a Novan."

Simmons shuddered as those eyes traveled her body. She'd hoped any rescuer that might come wouldn't make her current captors seem desirable, but it seemed that just wasn't going to happen. Still, after everything else she'd been through today, she refused to back down now. She looked Yondu in the eye and hid her fear as best she could as she said, "Well, I don't know what a Novan is, but that certainly won't be happening. Still, if you would be so kind as to let me out, you would have my gratitude."

Yondu looked confused. "But no one else on this side of the galaxy looks like that…wait a minute. Are you human, like Quill? Well, it just so happens we're doing a job right now for another one like you. I'm sure he'd love to see you, so just come with me, what do you say?"

Simmons was sure that he wasn't making the offer out of the goodness of his heart, but she didn't exactly have a wealth of other options at the moment. "All right, just let me out."

"With pleasure." Yondu threw the Kree to the floor, and pressed the button on his belt to shut off the force field. Howard quickly made a break for it, but Yondu reached over and casually grabbed his collar. "Oh no, you're coming too. Who knows when I'll see you again?"

Simmons rolled her eyes at the prospect of more of the duck's company, but eagerly headed out. Yondu led them past several dead Kree throughout the halls, but their luck ran out right as they approached his ship, as the General himself was camped in front of it with murder in his eyes. "And now you pay for…" he started, but that's as far as he got thanks to an arrow shooting off of a holster on Yondu's back and skewering him through the chest.

Simmons balked at the sight. "Was that really necessary?"

Yondu chuckled. "Stick with us and it's probably not the worst you'll see. You'd better get used to it. Anyway, let's get out of here, huh?"

They headed on board the ship, where Simmons barely got a chance to marvel at all the alien tech around her before Yondu said, "And this is our current employer, as promised."

The man did indeed appear human, though he wasn't dressed like any human Simmons had encountered. He wore a blue tunic that seemed like something from centuries ago, along with a red cape with a ludicrously high collar. "Ah, I did not expect to meet one of my own kind on this voyage," he said in an impossibly deep voice. "These ruffians were not my first choice for companions, but I simply couldn't argue with their results. It will be nice to be with someone like you as well. Ah, but forgive me, introductions should come first. I am Stephen Strange, Sorcerer Supreme of this universe."


	3. Chapter 3

As Yondu dragged a struggling Howard to another part of the ship, Simmons stared dumbfounded at the man for a few seconds before saying, "I'm sorry, but I've never heard of you."

Strange nodded. "My organization has existed for quite a long time, and has gotten quite good at hiding its existence from everyone else."

"But, I'm a member of SHIELD. It's sort of our job to keep track of things like this."

He smiled. "Don't worry. Your people certainly have made that job difficult for the last several decades, but like I said, we are very good at it. On the other hand, this does mean I don't have to keep my mission secret from you. Well, most of it. The Asgardian Thor informed your people of the Infinity Stones, yes?"

Simmons blinked. Whatever she'd expected, it wasn't that. "He had a vision that showed him four of them, though one didn't make any sense to us."

Strange nodded. "And there are more he was not informed of. One of them is the Soul Stone, which is the rightful property of the Sorcerer Supreme. It vanished centuries ago, and has been the great mystery of our work since that time. Then I received word of what Thor had discovered. The stone you didn't understand was the Power Stone, which resides on this side of the universe, and is currently being kept safe by the Nova Corps."

Simmons recognized the name from Yondu's advances on her and shuddered. "I'm sorry, what does that mean?"

"Ah, forgive me. It's so hard sometimes to keep track of who knows what. The Nova Corps are the major peacekeepers of this galaxy, and the Stone is quite secure in their hands. But when I heard about it, I realized the only thing that could possibly have kept the Soul Stone hidden from so many Sorcerers: they were looking in the entire wrong end of the universe. After all, if one Infinity Stone can be all the way out here, why not two? And so King Odin generously lent me the use of the Space Stone, what you call the Tesseract, to transport myself here." Simmons detected a subtle change in Strange's tone at those words; what about Odin could trigger that? Well, a mystery for another time, she supposed.

That was when Yondu returned. "And as it so happened, me and my boys had just got done with a job for that so-called Power Stone. Which ended with my own boy double-crossing me. Though I can't really blame him too much, given I was planning to just sell it to the highest bidder. And he didn't have to leave me a new toy for my dashboard the way he did."

Strange picked up the story again. "I first approached the people who had actually recovered the Stone, naturally, but they wanted nothing to do with it. And were quite rude about it, in fact," he said with a look of distaste that Simmons found rather humorously incongruous. "So this crew was my second attempt, and they agreed quite readily."

Yondu replied, "You bet. I'm going to make the money I deserve for this job one way or another."

Strange shook his head. "I've told you several times, you will be very well compensated, but first the job must get done."

At this Simmons finally had to interrupt. "But none of this has anything to do with me. So could you please just send me back now?"

Strange sighed. "I wish I could. Unfortunately, Odin only allowed me two uses of the Space Stone, to come here and then back. I cannot risk ruining the Sorcerers' relationship with Asgard over breaking that word."

Simmons barely contained her temper. "But I just want to go back home!"

"I am sorry, truly. But my hands are tied." He turned to Yondu and said, "Now captain, I have allowed you your little diversion, and my patience grows thin. Where are we going to search for my Stone?"

Yondu grinned. "I thought you'd never ask. After much searching around, we did find there's another player besides the Collector who's been interested in these Stones lately. We'll be paying a visit to the Chitauri."


End file.
